Ben 10 : Unlimited

14

Dark Heart

Watchtower

"Do you think it will work?" asked Wonder Woman.

"The Galvan are the smartest people in my universe," replied Grey Matter, "of course it will work!"

The two Leaguers were in the science wing of the Watchtower; Wonder Woman was watching Grey Matter work on a device that he planned to install into the Ultimatrix. When he finished, all the Amazon Princess saw was a silver bead.

"That's it?"

Grey Matter snorted. "As you should know by looking at me, size doesn't matter; once placed into the Ultimatrix, this device will allow me to communicate with the League no matter what form I turn into."

The issue of Ben's aliens lacking any long-range communication had been brought up in several meetings; in past missions, especially ones where Ben was in command, orders had to be relayed through other Leaguers. Today, Ben had decided to do something about that.

"Would you hand me that pen and paper, Diana?" asked Grey Matter, holding out a small hand.

As she did so, Ship entered the room. "Ship ship?" he inquired.

"In a moment, Ship, I'm almost done." Grey Matter sketched out a diagram for his human self to follow, making sure to label the directions in a way that a non-genius could follow. He then slapped the Ultimatrix dial and turned back into Ben.

"Okay," he said, "let's see if this works." Following the directions he'd left himself, he placed the silver bead onto the bottom of the Ultimatrix; with a buzzing sound, the device actually went into the gauntlet.

"Did it work?" asked Wonder Woman.

"Only one way to find out." Replied Ben; he held the Ultimatrix close to his mouth and spoke into it. "Ben to Supergirl; are you there?"

"Yeah Ben, I'm here," came Supergirl's voice from the Ultimatrix, "what's up?"

"Just testing a new feature of the Ultimatrix; now I should be able to communicate to other Leaguers, even if I'm an alien."

"Sweet!"

"Yep; hey, Ship needs something, I'll see you in a sec." Ben turned to Ship. "Okay, buddy, what's the matter?"

"Ship ship ship!" Ben's eyes went wide, while Wonder Woman, who still couldn't understand what the little alien was saying, raised an eyebrow.

"What did he say?"

Ben looked at her. "Ship says that he detected an alien presence landing on Earth."

Now it was Wonder Woman's eyes that widened. "Is he sure?"

"Ship's never been wrong before."

"All Justice League members and associates, report to the Javelin bay for deployment," came J'onn's voice over the PA, "we have an omega-level threat; this is not a drill."

As Ben, Wonder Woman and Ship rushed to the Javelin bay, Ben said, "See what I mean?"

…

Nevada

"Containment has failed and we are taking heavy losses,"came the voice of a US army commander over the radio, "requesting emergency support; I repeat, we cannot contain them!"

"Sounds like the commander could use a little reassurance." Said Superman, as he flew towards the conflict.

"Let's hope we can give it to him." Said Batman from the Batwing.